Annie Carter

Name

Year

Credit

credited As

Beyonce and Jay Z spent a snowy Christmas (25Dec14) in Iceland but they have now swapped the cold country for the sun-soaked beaches of Thailand.
The superstar couple wrapped up warm for a wintry visit to Iceland, sharing snaps of snowmobile rides, ice sculptures and a dip in the famous Blue Lagoon over the holidays as they enjoyed a festive family break.
One picture, posted on Beyonce's blog, even showed the stars standing outside in a snow storm drinking Champagne in front of a waiting helicopter.
However, they have now left the cold climate behind and jetted off to Thailand for a beach break.
Beyonce has been pictured riding an elephant and relaxing on a beach with her husband and daughter, Blue Ivy, who turns three on 7 January (15).

Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

The most fascinating thing about Cruella de Vil — and I'm talking the six-foot-tall, bloodless fashionista first delivered in the 1961 animated incarnation of One Hundred and One Dalmations — is that she was, uniquely, ordinary. She wasn't a tyrannical queen, a seafaring pirate, a sadistic tiger, or any sort of mystic or mythical character. She was just a sinister, foul socialite who torpedoed through the London streets, dragging a mammoth fur coat and a noxious cloud of smoke behind her at all times. She stands alone as one of Disney's most normal villains. And perhaps, to date, its best. Certainly worthy of further exploration, as the studio seems to understand: The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Disney is setting forth on a live action film centering on Cruella de Vil.
Aline Brosh McKenna — the writer behind another Disney update, Cinderella, as well as the developing Annie remake and a healthy array of sun-kissed rom-coms (Three to Tango, 27 Dresses, Morning Glory, We Bought a Zoo) — will be handling the Cruella feature, breathing a new life into the vindictive mannequin since her last embodiment through one Glenn Close.
In the face of the supernatural baddies that occupy most Disney films, we are pleased to see the dark charms of Cruella De Vil getting their due in a new project. So long as they bring back that song, we're on board.
More:Winter Is Coming in 'Frozen' TrailerHelena Bonham Carter Joins 'Cinderella'Original Jafar Joins 'Aladdin' Musical
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//
From Our Partners:40 Most Revealing See-Through Red Carpet Looks (Vh1)15 Stars Share Secrets of their Sex Lives (Celebuzz)

It looks like Daddy Warbucks has found his Annie in Beasts Of The Southern Wild star Quvenzhané Wallis. The girl with enough poodle purposes to stitch together a life-sized Sandy of her very own, the Oscar-nominated Wallis has been confirmed to Hollywood.com as the new leading lady to tackle the little orphan in Will Smith's remake of the classic. Previously, Smith's daughter Willow was set to take on the golden-hearted inhabitant of Miss Hannigan's home for girls, but departed from the project earlier this year (presumably to whip her hair back and forth a bit longer).
RELATED: 9 Questions About the 2013 Oscar Race
But it wouldn't be a big-time remake without some other major names attached. Jada Pinkett-Smith is also on-hand to produce, alongside Sean (better known as Jay-Z) Carter. It seems only fitting Jay-Z would hop on board — given his own hard knock life and previously-confirmed affinity for the song with the same name.
The film's director Will Gluck (Easy A) has taken another stab at screenplay re-writes after Emma Thompson and The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna took a first and second stab at it, respectively.
According to the official statement from Sony's President of Production Hannah Minghella, we're in for a real treat (times three): "Quvenzhané Wallis is a true star and we believe her portrayal as Annie will make her a true worldwide star. She is an extraordinary young talent with an amazing range, not only as an actress but as a singer and dancer, and we can’t wait for audiences to further discover her."
RELATED: 'Beasts' Star Quvenzhane Wallis to Star in 'Annie' Remake?
That's right, Wallis is one of those child stars who can act, sing, and dance! You can really learn it all in the Bathtub. Hushpuppy is a veritable force to be reckoned with. And if that wasn't enough, Wallis' bio proves further proof that she's both a child and a crazy-serious and impressive actress with the greatest of ease. Her bio from the press release lets us know that her "favorite pastimes are reading, singing, dancing, acting, and playing her iPod and Nintendo DS. Her favorite TV stars/singers are China McClain, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus. Her favorite sports are basketball, volleyball, dance and cheerleading. Her upcoming films include a role in Twelve Years a Slave with Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen." Oh, that's all? Annie is set to be released during the 2014 holiday movie season because of course it will.
What do you think of Wallis' casting as Annie? Let us know in the comments!
Follow Alicia on Twitter @alicialutes
[Photo Credit: WENN]
From Our Partners:25 Most Scandalous Celeb Twitpics (Vh1)33 Child Stars: Where Are They Now? (Celebuzz)
Oscars 2013 Special Coverage
Oscars 2013 Red Carpet Arrivals: PICS!
• We Predict the Winners: Do You Agree?• 15 Oscar-Winning Nude Scenes• The Worst Best Picture Winner Ever• Oscar's Problem With Pretty Boys• Why Stars Should Fear Seth MacFarlane• 10 TV Stars You Never Knew Won Oscars• The Winner, According to You

Upon hearing early announcements of a developing film adaptation of Lee Child's crime thriller novel One Shot, fans of the author were likely pleased. But even those unfamiliar with Child's writing might have caught wind of the title and donated some intrigue: One Shot. Immediately, you know what sort of subject matter you're dealing with. You know the genre and attitude of the movie, and, if you're familiar with the "One shot, one kill" motto of the military sniper community, you know that the central character might even have ties to the armed forces.
But somewhere along the line, Paramount Pictures decided a re-branding was in order. A shedding of this accessible, inclusive title, and an application of a moniker more "in-the-know": Jack Reacher. The adoption of the name of Child's recurring title character, embodied in the movie by a straight-faced Tom Cruise, as the movie's title is a curious move. What exactly makes Jack Reacher preferable to One Shot? The argument of pandering more directly to the literature's fans can be quelled by the simple fact that anyone who loves the books would obviously be familiar with, and enticed by, the title of one of them (One Shot is the ninth Jack Reacher book in Child's series). And anyone who doesn't know who Jack Reacher is might automatically be turned off by the title. There's something kind of creepy about the name, after all.
But as odd a choice as it may seem, the act is hardly unprecedented. Earlier this year, a very similar situation took place when the James Patterson novel I, Alex Cross was brought to screen, initially intending to maintain the title verbatim but instead dropping the first person pronoun to result in a film titled Alex Cross. And quite a film indeed. Another 2012 example is found in the science fiction adventure film John Carter, which preferred this highly generic nomenclature to the source material title John Carter of Mars, hoping to deter adversaries of the sci-fi genre (forces behind the film insolently categorized this demographic as "women").
And the pattern continues in our journey back through film history: Tonight, He Comes became Hancock. Anhedonia became Annie Hall. So many films have upheld the practice, and always with the most generic sounding names imaginable, in lieu of something "stranger," albeit plausibly more gripping. While the ideas of the military, of Mars, of big fancy words meaning joylessness might each be divisive, they at least call for some opinion. How strongly can you feel either way about some dude named Jack Reacher or John Carter?
The habit seems to lend to Hollywood's preference to play it safe than to experiment. Sure, no one might love a John Carter movie by title alone, but no one will hate it either. On the other hand, there are people out there who really can't stand Mars. Or at least that's what Disney has been telling us. Personally, I love Mars. Neptune's a douche, though.
And yes, the naming of the movies does not change the content of these films — Annie Hall would have been a masterpiece even as Anhedonia; Alex Cross would have been a jambalaya of nonsense even with an I, in front of it — but it might change our attitude towards the movies while watching, and in turn the viewing experience. When we enter John Carter of Mars, we're thinking of one thing: another planet. When we enter John Carter, we're thinking of that dude who used to eat glue in our second grade class. When we enter the alternative-universe's future film One Shot when it opens on Dec. 21, we'd be geared up for guns-a-blazin' and some high-stakes crime. When we enter Jack Reacher, we'll be geared up for a guy we might like to set up with our cousin Stacy.
The pros of this? Relatability. Maybe we feel closer to characters when their names are front and center. But the cons far too many to compensate for this. Alienation of any truly passionate fan bases. The feeling of abandonment for the more niche themes therein. The real problem is show business' unwillingness, in cases like these, to embrace its will to be weird. But don't keep pulling Kings Speeches, Hollywood. Playing it safe might keep everybody satisfied, but it doesn't make anybody happy.
[Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures]
More:
New 'The Great Gatsby' Trailer Reveals Not All that Glitters is Gold — TRAILER
The Ultimate Top 10 Movies of 2012 List
'This Is 40': Judd Apatow on Staying Relevant and P.T. Anderson's Love of 'Heavyweights'
You Might Also Like:
20 Hottest Bikini Bodies of 2012: Megan Fox and More!
Honey Boo Boo vs. Kardashians: An Xmas Card Showdown

With each outing in his evolving filmmaking career actor-turned-director Ben Affleck has amped up the scope. Gone Baby Gone was a character drama woven into a hard-boiled mystery. The Town saw Affleck dabble in action pulling off bank heists many compared to the expertise of Heat. In Argo the director pulls off his most daring effort melding one part caper comedy and two parts edge-of-your-seat political thriller into an exhilarating theatrical experience.
At the height of the Iranian Revolution in 1979 anti-Shah militants stormed the U.S. embassy and captured 52 American hostages. Six managed to escape the raid finding refuge in the Canadian ambassador's home. Within hours the militants began a search for the missing Americans sifting through shredded paperwork for even the smallest bit of evidence. Under pressure by the ticking clock the CIA worked quickly to formulate a plan to covertly rescue the six embassy workers. Despite a lengthy list of possibilities only Tony Mendez (Affleck) had a plan just enticing enough to unsuspecting Iranian officials to work: the CIA would fake a Hollywood movie shoot.
There's nothing in Argo or Affleck's portrayal of Mendez that would tell you the technical operations officer has the imagination to conjure his master plan — Affleck perhaps to differentiate himself from the past plays his character with so much restraint he looks dead in the eyes — but when the Hollywood hijinks swing into full motion so does Argo. Mendez hooks up with Planet of the Apes makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to convince all of Hollywood that their sci-fi blockbuster "Argo " is readying for production. With enough promotional material concept art and press coverage Mendez and his team can convince the Iranian government they're a legit operation. A location scout in Tehran will be their method of extracting the bunkered down escapees.
Without an interesting lead to draw us in Affleck lets his eclectic ensemble do the heavy lifting. For the most part it works. Argo is basically two movies — Goodman and Arkin lead the Ocean's 11-esque half and Affleck takes the reigns when its time to get the six — another who's who of character actors including Tate Donovan Clea Duvall Scoot McNairy and Rory Cochrane — through the terrifying security of the Iranian airport. Arkin steals the show as a fast talking Hollywood type complete with year-winning catchphrase ("ArGo f**k yourself!) while McNairy adds a little more humanity to the spy mission when his character butts heads with Mendez. The split lessens the impact of each section but the tension in the escape is so high so taut that there's never a moment to check out.
Reality is on Affleck's side his camera floating through crowds of protestors and the streets of Tehran — a warscape where anything can happen. Each angle he chooses heightens the terror which starts to close in on the covert escape as they drift further and further from their homebase. Argo is a complete package with the '70s production design knowing when to play goofy (the fake movie's wild sci-fi designs) and when to remind us that problems took eight more steps to fix then they do today. Alexandre Desplat's score finds balance in haunting melodies and energetic pulses.
Part of Argo's charm is just how unreal the entire operation really was. To see the men and women involved go through with a plan they know could result in death. It's a suspenseful adventure and while there's not much in the way of character to cling to the visceral experience tends to be enough.
="font-style:>

It was the trickle of pee heard around the world. Cannes attendees were aghast and/or amused an infamous scene from The Paperboy that shows Nicole Kidman urinating on Zac Efron; this is apparently a great salve for jellyfish burns which were covering our Ken Doll-like protagonist. (In fact the term protagonist should be used very loosely for Efron's character Jack who is mostly acted upon than active throughout.)
Lurid! Sexy! Perverse! Trashy! Whether or not it's actually effective is overshadowed by all the hubbub that's attached itself to the movie for better or worse. In fact the movie is all of these things — but that's actually not a compliment. What could have become somethingmemorable is jaw-droppingly bad (when it's not hilarious). Director Lee Daniels uses a few different visual styles throughout from a stark black and white palette for a crime scene recreation at the beginning to a '70s porno aesthetic that oscillates between psychedelic and straight-up sweaty with an emphasis on Efron's tighty-whiteys. This only enhances the sloppiness of the script which uses lines like narrator/housekeeper/nanny Anita's (Macy Gray) "You ain't tired enough to be retired " to conjure up the down-home wisdom of the South. Despite Gray's musical talents she is not a good choice for a narrator or an actor for that matter. In a way — insofar as they're perhaps the only female characters given a chunk of screen time — her foil is Charlotte Bless Nicole Kidman's character. Anita is the mother figure who wears as we see in an early scene control-top pantyhose whereas Charlotte is all clam diggers and Barbie doll make-up. Or as Anita puts it "an oversexed Barbie doll."
The slapdash plot is that Jack's older brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) comes back to town with his colleague Yardley (David Oyelowo) to investigate the case of a death row criminal named Hillary Van Wetter. Yardley is black and British which seems to confuse many of the people he meets in this backwoods town. Hillary (John Cusack) hidden under a mop of greasy black hair) is a slack-jawed yokel who could care less if he's going to be killed for a crime he might or might not have committed. He is way more interested in his bride-to-be Charlotte who has fallen in love with him through letters — this is her thing apparently writing letters and falling in love with inmates — and has rushed to help Ward and Yardley free her man. In the meantime we're subjected to at least one simulated sex scene that will haunt your dreams forever. Besides Hillary's shortcomings as a character that could rustle up any sort of empathy the case itself is so boring it begs the question why a respected journalist would be interested enough to pursue it.
The rest of the movie is filled with longing an attempt to place any the story in some sort of social context via class and race even more Zac Efron's underwear sexual violence alligator innards swamp people in comically ramshackle homes and a glimpse of one glistening McConaughey 'tock. Harmony Korine called and he wants his Gummo back.
It's probably tantalizing for this cast to take on "serious" "edgy" work by an Oscar-nominated director. Cusack ditched his boombox blasting "In Your Eyes" long ago and Efron's been trying to shed his squeaky clean image for so long that he finally dropped a condom on the red carpet for The Lorax so we'd know he's not smooth like a Ken doll despite how he was filmed by Daniels. On the other hand Nicole Kidman has been making interesting and varied career choices for years so it's confounding why she'd be interested in a one-dimensional character like Charlotte. McConaughey's on a roll and like the rest of the cast he's got plenty of interesting projects worth watching so this probably won't slow him down. Even Daniels is already shooting a new film The Butler as we can see from Oprah's dazzling Instagram feed. It's as if they all want to put The Paperboy behind them as soon as possible. It's hard to blame them.

There is something particularly unnerving about demon possession. It's the idea of something you can't see or control creeping into your body and taking up residence eventually obliterating all you once were and turning you into nothing more than a sack of meat to be manipulated. Then there's also the shrouded ritual around exorcisms: the Latin chants the flesh-sizzling crucifixes and the burning Holy Water. As it turns out exorcism isn't just the domain of Catholics.
The myths and legends of the Jews aren't nearly as well known but their creepy dybbuk goes toe-to-toe with anything other world religions come up with. There are various interpretations of what a dybbuk is or where it comes from — is it a ghost a demon a soul of a sinner? — but in any case it's looking for a body to hang out in for a while. Especially according to the solemn Hasidic Jews in The Possession an innocent young person and even better a young girl.
The central idea in The Possession is that a fancy-looking wooden box bought at a garage sale was specifically created to house a dybbuk that was tormenting its previous owner. Unfortunately it caught the eye of young Emily (Natasha Calis) a sensitive artistic girl who persuades her freshly divorced dad Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan of Watchmen and Grey's Anatomy) to buy it for her. Never mind the odd carvings on it — that would be Hebrew — or how it's created without seams so it would be difficult to open or why it's an object of fascination for a young girl; Clyde is trying really hard to please his disaffected daughters and do the typical freshly divorced parent dance of trying to please them no matter the cost.
Soon enough the creepy voices calling to Emily from the box convince her to open it up; inside are even creepier personal objects that are just harbingers of what's to come for her her older sister Hannah (Madison Davenport) her mom Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick) and even Stephanie's annoying new boyfriend Brett (Grant Show). Clyde and Stephanie squabble over things like pizza for dinner and try to convince each other and themselves that Emily's increasingly odd behavior is that of a troubled adolescent. It's not of course and eventually Clyde enlists the help of the son of a Hasidic rabbi a young man named Tzadok played by the former Hasidic reggae musician Matisyahu to help them perform an exorcism on Emily.
The Possession is not going to join the ranks of The Exorcist in the horror pantheon but it does do a remarkable job of making its characters intelligent and even occasionally droll and it offers up plenty of chills despite a PG-13 rating. Perhaps it's because of that rating that The Possession is so effective; the filmmakers are forced to make the benign scary. Giant moths and flying Torahs take the place of little Reagan violently masturbating with a crucifix in The Exorcist. Gagging and binging on food is also an indicator of Emily's possession — an interesting twist given the anxieties of becoming a woman a girl Emily's age would face. There is something inside her controlling her and she knows it and she is fighting it. The most impressive part of Calis's performance is how she communicates Emily's torment with a few simple tears rolling down her face as the dybbuk's control grows. The camerawork adds to the anxiety; one particularly scary scene uses ordinary glass kitchenware to great effect.
The Possession is a short 92 minutes and it does dawdle in places. It seems as though some of the scenes were juggled around to make the PG-13 cut; the moth infestation scene would have made more sense later in the movie. Some of the problems are solved too quickly or simply and yet it also takes a while for Clyde's character to get with it. Stephanie is a fairly bland character; she makes jewelry and yells at Clyde for not being present in their marriage a lot and then there's a thing with a restraining order that's pretty silly. Emily is occasionally dressed up like your typical horror movie spooky girl with shadowed eyes an over-powdered face and dark clothes; it's much more disturbing when she just looks like an ordinary though ill young girl. The scenes in the heavily Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn look oddly fake and while it's hard to think of who else could have played Tzadok an observant Hasidic Jew who is also an outsider willing to take risks the others will not Matisyahu is not a very good actor. Still the filmmakers should be commended for authenticity insofar as Matisyahu has studied and lived as a Hasidic Jew.
It would be cool if Lionsgate and Ghost House Pictures were to release the R-rated version of the movie on DVD. What the filmmakers have done within the confines of a PG-13 rating is creepy enough to make me curious to see the more adult version. The Possession is no horror superstar and its name is all too forgettable in a summer full of long-gestating horror movies quickly pushed out the door. It's entertaining enough and could even find a broader audience on DVD. Jeffrey Dean Morgan can read the Old Testament to me any time.